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Nonviolent direct actions against coal
Definition and history of nonviolent direct action The term "direct action" refers to political activities which attempt to bring about changes in the world in a direct and unmediated way. This concept of mediation is key to the distinction - often made by proponents of direct action - between direct action and symbolic action: symbolic action is understood as political activities which appeal to government officials or other power-holders to make changes on behalf on those participating in the action. What is Direct Action?. Infoshop website, accessed January 2008. A wide variety of political activities can thus be characterized as examples of direct action. Those examples can be categorized by their desired effect: #Strikes, boycotts, and sabotage against economic authorities #Blockades and occupations of physical spaces #Destruction of authorities' property or resources #Violent resistance against authorities #Building alternatives to existing social/economic relationships The term "direct action" was first used by anarchist and radical socialist labor activists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In this context, direct action was understood as involving all five of the above tactics - focusing especially on the first and the fourth.de Cleyre, Voltairine. "Direct Action." In the 1970's and 80's, the term "direct action" was adopted by activists within the European and American anti-nuclear movements. In this context, the term almost always referred to the second category of direct action: blockades and occupations of nuclear power plants and of roads leading to those plants, as well as of military bases where nuclear weapons were being stored. Also, direct actions by anti-nuclear movements - who were influenced by Gandhian principles of nonviolenceGandhi, Mahatma. "The Power of Nonviolence." Mkgandhi.org website, accessed January 2008. - usually referred to such blockades as nonviolent direct actions, thus linking themselves with the nonviolent civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960's, and distancing themselves with the more violent history of direct action as a tactic of radical labor activists in the early 20th century. Prominent examples of anti-nuclear direct actions include the attempted 1972 blockade of a nuclear weapons test in French Polynesia by the ship Greenpeace III,Weyler, Rex. Greenpeace: How a Group of Ecologists, Journalists, and Visionaries Changed the World. Rodale Books, 2004. the 1977 blockade of Seabrook Station in New Hampshire,Wasserman, Harvey. "How Creative Mass Non-Violence Beat a Nuke and Launched the Global Green Power Movement." Free Press, May 13, 2007. and the occupations of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant between 1977 and 1981.Wills, John. Conservation Fallout: Nuclear Protest at Diablo Canyon. Univ. of Nevada Press, 2006. In the 1990's, this understanding of direct action (primarily focusing on blockades and occupations) has spread from the anti-nuclear movement to anti-globalization, anti-war, and radical environmental activists organizations and movements more generally.Wood, Lesley. "The diffusion of direct action tactics: From Seattle to Toronto and New York." Dissertation, Department of Sociology, Columbia University. 2005. A variety of tactics have been developed by activists in these movements, with the goal of occupying spaces and disrupting the activities of economic and political organizations. Prominent examples include the 1999 blockade of the Seattle summit of the World Trade Organization, the 2003 blockade of the San Francisco financial district by anti-war activists, and actions against the 2007 G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany. Resources References